Cooling bed



July 31, 1923- G. SMITH COOLING BED Filed oct. 22 1921 Fig. 2 is asectional view on the line 22' in i ntented July 31, 1923,

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Application filed October 22, '1921 Serial No. 509,682

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE- MiABSHALlL SMITH, a citizen of the UnitedStates, resid-' ing at Chicago, in the county of Cook, State ofIllinois, having invented certain new and useful Improvements in CoolingBeds, do

hereby declare that the foll wing is-afull,

clear, and exact description-of the same.-

My invention relates to cooling beds used in handling hot'metal bars asthey are delivered from the reducing-rolls of a rollingmill and consistsin-the. novel andu'se'ful constructions herein described and thenpointed-out in the appended-claims.

In the accompanylng drawings, which illustrate a practicalembodiment'ofthe features of my invention and in which the samereference numerals indicate similar parts in the'difierent views, Rig. 1is atop planview of a longitudinal section or ortion of a cooling bedequipped with my invention, the metal bars under treatment being shownbrokenaway for convenience of illustration;

Fig. 1; Figs. 3 and 4: are detail sectional views on the lines 3-3 and44= respectively in Fig. l, and Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic view to showcertain arrangements of parts.

The objects of my invention are to provide certain improvements incooling beds for metal bars whereby-the barsas they are moved downthe-inclinedmetallic skids are subjected to minimum contact therewith toreduce their chilling and enable their surfaces that have been intemporary contact with the skids to be restored to the same temperatureas the adjacent metal of the bar by the conduction of the heat from thehotter to the chilled colder part of the bar, and also whereby thebottom bar of a pack on the stationary rack-section of the bed issubjected to minimum contact with the metallic troughs or pockets toallow theheat from the bars in the center of the pack to anneal it.Obviously the term bar as used herein includes all such shapes as rodsandother forms of metal which are usually long in proportion to theirwidth or thickness.

. a run-out table comprising alon cons-shaped feed-rolls A, theperipheries of rWhlCh project through openings, into the trough andserve to convey the metal bar' as it'is delivered from thereducing-rolls.

It is to be understood that the trough is usually long enough toaccommodatea 300 foot bar, and that the cooling bed, of whose in lyextended.

he inclmed bed'B constitutes the escapetory to theirbeing cutintosuitable lengths,

and consists of a series of rigid inclined skid beams B upon. Whichthebars are delivered from thetrough. Eac-h skid beam is pro- .vided withaseries of'vertical ribs] or flanges B B 13 13, B, and-B, arrangedlongi-.

tudinally on its upper face in staggered re} length only a section isshown, is correspond.

lation; preferably the disposition of these flanges is such thatalternate flanges are not in alinement lengthwise of the beam, for

exampleas shown in Figs. 1 and 3. These flanges are narrow and projectsufficiently above the beams to form skids or ways that hold the barsout of contact with the beams.

Between the beams B are journaled in the bed a .series ofrocking-shafts'C parallel with the beams and having radial arms C,

C and C extending therefrom. The arms (1 on the ends of the shafts arearranged to pass through open-end slots a in the trough A so that. uponoscillation oft-the shafts they will transfer the bar out of the troughto the bed. The arms C on each sha ft are arranged in a plane atrightangles with the plane of the arms C upon the same shaft, and each seriesof arms is also arranged in a straight horizontal row extendinglengthwise of the bed so that the hot metal bars will bejpreserved instraight lines Suitable mechanism which is well known and forms nopartof my present invention, and so need not be here shown and described,actuates the rocking-shafts so that'they arersimultane-ously rocked backand forth one-quarter of a revolution at each movement of thereciprocating mechanism, carrying the series of radial arms C and theser es of radial arms C alternately into a vertical position with theirends projectin ashort distance above the inclined beams arms C in Fig.2, so that the arms which extend in a vertical-position will form a,

, as represented bythe row of dogs arranged in a'straight horizonfromthe last row of flanges B upon the i111 clined guides B at the lower endof the skid-section ofthe bed B by which they are delivered to theinitial row of pockets of the rack-section of the cooling bed.

The rack-section of the cooling bed is composed of a series of parallelstationary racks D arranged respectively in line with the series ofskid-beams as shown in Fig. 1. Each rack is provided with a series oftroughs or pockets D which are V-shaped in crosssection, each series ofpockets being arranged in a straight row lengthwise of the bed topreserve the hot bars in straight lines. Suitable mechanism of any knownconstruction may be employed to lift the bars from each pocket anddeposit them in the next one, and when the bars are to be arranged inpacks m in the pockets suitable mechanism of known construction may beemployed to deliver the bars from the skid-section of the.

bed to the first row of pockets in the racksection so that they will bedisposed therein in a pack as shown; mechanisms for both purposes arenow well-known and need not be here described, and devices for feedingthe bars forward upon the racks from one line of pockets to another aregenerally designated at D Each of the first three pockets in'each rackis provided with a vertical flange D on each of its inclinedfaces,

and the flanges of eachrack are arranged in staggered relation along itslength. and preferably the disposition of these flanges is such thatneither flange of any pocket is in line with a flange of an adjacentpocket, as shown in Fig. 5. Also, preferably the racks are wider thanthe skid-beams and the flanges of each beam and its alined rack arestaggered along the longitudinal line of each such couple, as shown inFig. 2.

In cooling beds as heretofore constructed, so far as I am aware, thebars while on the skid-beams restedon the flat surface thereof whichprovided a bearing several inches wide and as the same portions of thehot bars were in contact with the cold beams during the entire period oftheir travel down the inclined section of the bed these portions becamechilled. Also, as the racks of such previous beds were formed with theirbar-supporting surfaces of ap roximately the same width as theskid-surfaces of their beams,

of the hot bars were further chilled below aeaeaa the temperature of theadjoining metal inv the bars while they rested on the racks; andfurthermore, the face of the bottombar an edges of the several bars in apack on the racks were cooled so fast by the colder metal of the racksdrawing heat from them faster than they could absorb'heat from the packthat the heat from the center bars of-the pack was not sufiicient toevenly annealth'em.

The general theory of annealing packs of hot bars, as for examplewhere'the bars are 1ntended for use in making vehicle springs or otherparts requiring a standard of hardness, is that the heat from the centerof the pack will anneal its surfaces, and in the use of previousmachines such as just described the effect of the racks was to preventthe contacting portions of the bottom bars of the packs from annealingto the same degree of hardness as the rest of the bar. The crit- By myinvention I obviate both of these,

passing down the 1 defects. The. bars while inclined section of the bereston the narrow flanges, and as these flanges on each beam arestaggered in the line of travel of the bar along the beam the portionsof the bar contacting with the skid are changed as the bar moves .downit. This enables each small portion of the bar that has been in contactwith the skid and so momentarily chilled to be reheated to thetemperature of the other parts of the bar by the exchange of heat byconduction from the non-chilled to the chilled portion. llhe portionchilled by contact with any one of the flanges on the beam is so smalland the contact is so momentary'that the heat conduction from both sidesof it restores its temperature to that of the rest of the bar whileanother portion is in contact with thesucceeding flange, and the endflange B is so arranged that the portion of the bar in contact with itis remote from any immediately preceding.

chilled portion so that the latter will be reheated by conduction whilethe bar is passing its its

gree; they decrease the extent of the hot surfaces exposed to the coldmetal of the racks and allow the bars in the center-0t the packto'anneal the others. The bars are carried across the bed with a minimumof chilling until they reach the pocket where they are vbelow thecritical temperature; in practice beams provided with skid-flanges ontheirupper faces, the flanges on each beam being arranged longitudinallyin staggered relation, and means to feed the bars successively along theflanges lengthwise of the beams.

2. In a cooling bed for metal bars, the combination of a series ofinclined skidbeams provided with skid-flanges on their upper facesarranged in horizontal rows lengthwise of the bed, the flanges on eachbeam being staggered in different planes lengthwise thereof, and meansto feed the bars along the beams whereby they are successively carriedby the horizontal rows of flanges.

3. In a cooling bed for metal bars, the combination of a series ofrackseach provided with a series of pockets, flanges on certain of thepockets of each rack arranged in staggered relation to each other, and

means to move the bars along the racks from one pocket to an adjoiningone.

4. In a cooling bed for metal bars, the combination of a series of rackseach provided with a series of pockets, a plurality of pockets at thereceiving end of each rack having flanges arranged in staggered relationto each other, and means to move the bars along the racks from onepocket to an adjoining one.

5. In a cooling bed for metal bars, the combination of a series ofinclined skid beams forming the first section of the bed provided withskid-flanges on their upper faces, the flanges on each beam. beingstaggered in different planes lengthwise thereof,

means to feed the bars'along the flanges, a.

series of racks forming the second section of the bed and provided witha series of pockets, flanges on a plurality of the pockets at thereceiving end of each rack arranged in staggered relation in each pocketand means to move the bars along the racks from one pocket to anadjoining one.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

GEORGE MARSHALL SMITH.

